The flags of Russia and China. Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh pose for a picture before a meeting in Beijing, on September 2, 2025. Photo: Sergey Bobylev/Reuters

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Kazan:

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that the international situation was gripped by chaos but that Beijing’s strategic partnership with Moscow was a force for stability amid the most significant changes seen in a century.

Xi and Putin in May pledged a “new era” of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world.

“At present, the world is going through changes unseen in a hundred years, the international situation is intertwined with chaos,” Xi told Putin in the Russian city of Kazan at the opening of the BRICS summit.

“But I firmly believe that the friendship between China and Russia will continue for generations, and great countries’ responsibility to their people will not change.”

Russia, waging war against NATO-supplied Ukrainian forces, and China, under pressure from a concerted U.S. effort to counter its growing military and economic strength, increasingly have found common geopolitical cause.

Russia and China, pushing back against perceived humiliations of the 1991 Soviet collapse and centuries of European colonial dominance of China, have sought to portray the West as decadent and in decline.

The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat, and President Joe Biden has said the democracies face a challenge from autocracies such as China and Russia.

Biden has referred to Xi as a “dictator” and has said Putin is a “killer” and even a “crazy SOB”. Beijing and Moscow have scolded Biden for the comments.

Putin called Xi “dear friend” and said the partnership with China was a force for stability in the world.

“Russian-Chinese cooperation in world affairs is one of the main stabilising factors on the world stage,” Putin said.

“We intend to further enhance coordination on all multilateral platforms in order to ensure global security and a just world order.”

Xi said cooperation in the BRICS group was “the most important platform for solidarity and cooperation between emerging market countries and developing countries in the world today.”

He said it was “a mainstay force in promoting the realization of equal and orderly global multipolarity, as well as inclusive and tolerant economic globalisation.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, Russia on March 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

China congratulated Vladimir Putin on March 18 on winning Russia’s presidential election and said the strategic relationship between the two countries will continue to strengthen.

Mr. Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia’s election on Sunday, cementing his already tight grip on power in a victory he said showed Moscow had been right to stand up to the West and send its troops into Ukraine.

Also Read | China’s Xi says strong Russia ties a ‘strategic choice’

China President Xi Jinping sent a message to congratulate Mr. Putin on his re-election as president of Russia, Chinese state media reported.

“We firmly believe that under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Putin, China-Russia relations will continue to move forward,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters when asked about the vote.

“China and Russia are each other’s largest neighbours and comprehensive strategic partners in the new era.”

China has strengthened its ties with Russia over the past few years, even as Western criticism of the war in Ukraine intensified.

The two countries declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Mr. Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

It has been reported that China and Russia are preparing “several meetings” between Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin this year.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia, and Mr. Lin said the two heads of state would continue to maintain close exchanges.